The Jewish Ethicist: Snow Job

How can I get full payment for shoveling a driveway?

Q. After a recent snowstorm I went out shoveling walks and driveways. I cleared one medium-size driveway that usually costs about fifteen dollars, but the owner cheated me and gave me only three! Am I at fault for not agreeing on a price in advance? AE

A. Of course it is always best to avoid understandings by making all terms clear in advance. However, even if there is no negotiation the worker is still entitled to be paid according to whatever is customary.

In your case, you should have politely explained to the owner that a driveway like his usually costs fifteen dollars to clear. In fact it’s not too late; you can still go back now and make your case!

At the same time, you should judge the owner favorably. “Judge your fellow man with righteousness (Leviticus 19:15). " Perhaps he wasn’t aware of the going rates -- maybe he remembers what he used to get for shoveling snow when he was a youngster, before five decades of inflation eroded the value of the dollar! Perhaps it was a mere oversight and he meant to give you more. Finally, you have to be prepared for the possibility that he will sincerely claim that you were fairly paid; in this case you will have to be prepared to prove your claim.

The basic ethical principal here is that the obligation to pay does not stem primarily from the agreement; it mainly comes from the benefit that was caused. Indeed, even if there is no agreement at all a person can be made to pay for a benefit; otherwise he is taking advantage of what we call in English “unjust enrichment.”

This monetary principle is only one instance of a great religious principle. Despite the immense of important of the agreement, the covenant, made at Sinai to keep God’s commandments, the most powerful motivator is not agreement but acknowledgment of the multitude of benefits that He provides us. The feeling of gratitude is one of the surest paths to motivate us to God’s service. A person who is not an ingrate, one who is used to acknowledging and requiting the good others do to him, is easily inspired by the innumerable graces granted by God to be passionately devoted to perform His will.

The Jewish Ethicist presents some general principles of Jewish law. For specific questions and direct application, please consult a qualified Rabbi.

The Jewish Ethicist is a joint project of Aish.com and the Center for Business Ethics, Jerusalem College of Technology. To find out more about business ethics and Jewish values for the workplace, visit the JCT Center for Business Ethics website at www.besr.org.

About the Author

Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir is Research Director at the Business Ethics Center of Jerusalem (www.besr.org). He studied at Harvard, received a PhD in Economics from MIT, and rabbinic ordination from the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. Prior to moving to Israel, he worked at the Council of Economic Advisers in the Reagan administration. Rabbi Dr. Meir is also a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the Jerusalem College of Technology and has published several articles on business, economics and Jewish law. He is the author of the two-volume, "Meaning in Mitzvot (Feldheim), and his Aish.com columns form the basis of the "Jewish Ethicist" book (ktav.com).

The opinions expressed in the comment section are the personal views of the commenters. Comments are moderated, so please keep it civil.

Visitor Comments: 1

(1)
Sara,
October 13, 2003 12:00 AM

Was the service preformed before an agreement for payment was made?

I am not a Torah scholar, but I would like to add something. I donot know if this was the case here, but it often happens in my neighborhood that students shovel a driveway, and thenask for payment, without ever having seen if the homeowner water their driveway shoveled. This can be very embaressing. Sometimes the homeowner simply doesn't have the cash to pay th student, and sometimes they would rather have doen it themselves. This is really a sort of extortion-by-guilt. I do not think it is ethical, nor do I think the homeowner should be required to pay for a service he/she didn't want in the first place.

sara

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Since honey is produced by bees, and bees are not a kosher species, how can honey be kosher?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

The Talmud (Bechoros 7b) asks your very question! The Talmud bases this question on the principle that “whatever comes from a non-kosher species is non-kosher, and that which comes from something kosher is kosher.”

So why is bee-honey kosher? Because even though bees bring the nectar into their bodies, the resultant honey is not a 'product' of their bodies. It is stored and broken down in their bodies, but not produced there. (see Shulchan Aruch Y.D. 81:8)

By the way, the Torah (in several places such as Exodus 13:5) praises the Land of Israel as "flowing with milk and honey." But it may surprise you to know that the honey mentioned in the verse is actually referring to date and fig honey (see Rashi there)!

In 1809, a group of 70 disciples of the great Lithuanian sage the Vilna Gaon, arrived in Israel, after traveling via Turkey by horse and wagon. The Vilna Gaon set out for the Holy Land in 1783, but for unknown reasons did not attain his goal. However he inspired his disciples to make the move, and they became pioneers of modern settlement in Israel. (A large contingent of chassidic Jews arrived in Tzfat around the same time.) The leader of the 1809 group, Rabbi Israel of Shklov, settled in Tzfat, and six years later moved to Jerusalem where he founded the modern Ashkenazic community. The early years were fraught with Arab attacks, earthquakes, and a cholera epidemic. Rabbi Israel authored, Pe'at Hashulchan, a digest of the Jewish agricultural laws relating to the Land of Israel. (He had to rewrite the book after the first manuscript was destroyed in a fire.) The location of his grave remained unknown until it was discovered in Tiberias, 125 years after his death. Today, the descendants of that original group are amongst the most prominent families in Jerusalem.

When you experience joy, you feel good because your magnificent brain produces hormones called endorphins. These self-produced chemicals give you happy and joyful feelings.

Research on these biochemicals has proven that the brain-produced hormones enter your blood stream even if you just act joyful, not only when you really are happy. Although the joyful experience is totally imaginary and you know that it didn’t actually happen, when you speak and act as if that imaginary experience did happen, you get a dose of endorphins.

These chemicals are naturally produced by your brain. They are totally free and entirely healthy.

Many people find that this knowledge inspires them to create more joyful moments. It’s not just an abstract idea, but a physical reality.

Occasionally, when I walk into an office, the receptionist greets me rudely. Granted, I came to see someone else, and a receptionist's disposition is immaterial to me. Yet, an unpleasant reception may cast a pall.

A smile costs nothing. Greeting someone with a smile even when one does not feel like smiling is not duplicity. It is simply providing a pleasant atmosphere, such as we might do with flowers or attractive pictures.

As a rule, "How are you?" is not a question to which we expect an answer. However, when someone with whom I have some kind of relationship poses this question, I may respond, "Not all that great. Would you like to listen?" We may then spend a few minutes, in which I unburden myself and invariably begin to feel better. This favor is usually reciprocated, and we are both thus beneficiaries of free psychotherapy.

This, too, complies with the Talmudic requirement to greet a person in a pleasant manner. An exchange of feelings that can alleviate someone's emotional stress is even more pleasant than an exchange of smiles.

It takes so little effort to be a real mentsch.

Today I shall...

try to greet everyone in a pleasant manner, and where appropriate offer a listening ear.

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